Years ago I worked with Linux (Redhat 3.2, SUSE, Gentoo, and Slackware among others) and also played around with PHP. I’ve never really gotten too keen in PHP, mainly because it just seemed sort of a mess. But when I needed something to get the job done and didn’t want to wait on the bureaucratic nonsense of corporate governance, PHP was there for me, albeit with a headache to follow.

However my interest in Linux and alternate development stacks, being in Southern Mississippi left me pretty much one option if I wanted to get into software development: Microsoft’s .NET Framework.

So I learned that, and work with it regularly, and I dig it. Most of the time. It serves its purpose. I have however wanted more, so I’ve started digging into other things again. This is something I do frequently, and in my not so humble opinion think any serious developer should also dive into regularly. Step outside of your comfort zone and try other things out, often this helps expand both options (such as .NET and Java, or Ruby on Rails, or whatever).

Recently I’ve decided I’m diving head long straight into Ruby on Rails. I’m working on a new personal project and have determined I’m not going to use one lick of Microsoft Software (you can read in other motivations if you want to). This project will be 100% Linux (maybe some Apple Gear & Bits) and Ruby on Rails. I’ve not determined much beyond that. Database or data store, TBD, graphics, TBD, and other such are all TBD.

Ubuntu Download

With that, this is how & where I started from the ground up.

I snagged Ubuntu and loaded it (yes, it does dual boot on my machine that runs Windows 7). http://www.ubuntu.com/

Next I went straight to TekPub and started downloading some of the Ruby on Rails Video Tutorials the crew over there has put together. I purchased a membership because they’ve put out a lot of great material on everything from .NET, Entity Framework, NHibernate, Good SOLID Code, to Linux and Ruby on Rails. I like the efforts, the teaching style, and they’re rather entertaining. If you really don’t want to shell out any cash, there are other videos available on the Ruby on Rails Site.

The next issue I ran into was related to playing the TekPub Videos. Using the Synaptic Package Manager however I was able to download all the additional codecs I needed. I have to say, since the UX was vastly superior to Microsoft’s Windows Media Player (or whatever it’s called these days) I was able to get the codecs without much manual searching. I just clicked ok, the package manager popped up, found what I needed, and I clicked OK. This experience reminds me more of Apple’s OS-X than Windows strangely enough.

While watching the video, which includes great coverage of what Rails 3 is all about, I worked through the following bits. For these I also left the GUI Synaptic Package Manager and went with the command line, simply, it is just easier and faster.

Git

This was stupid simple.

sudo apt-get install git

Build Bits

Some important parts for building Ruby. Yeah, this is kind of a kicker, super long, crazy command, best to copy and paste.

Ruby 1.9.2 Bits

Now if you check with “ruby -v” the ruby 1.9.2p0 version will be default.

Setting Ruby 1.9.2 as Default

Collecting Gems

Now you’ll need some bits, in this case, called gems. This is one of the very powerful parts of Ruby on Rails. Beware, these bits have glorious AWESOME all over em’.

gem list
gem install rails

The gem list command should list what is currently installed. Initially, only the rake gem is installed. Once you execute gem install rails, then do another gem list, you’ll have a whole set of gems installed.

Checkup On Your Software

These are just a few of the commands that are helpful in identifying what is installed now. Try em’ out to get a view of what is available.

rvm gemset name
gem list

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Lean, Kanban, Agile Pairing, TDD (sometimes test after) software architect and programmer. Worked with distributed (called cloud sometimes) computing services since 2007 using phat data (8 billion rows of data on an AVERAGE day, sometimes called big data) and everything from business intelligence to the nitty gritty of array structures inside file based data stores to create caching tiers for custom software needs.
Currently pushing for distributed technologies & improving software architecture, better data centers, the best software development practices and keeping everything secure in the financial industry again.
To see what I'm up to today, check out my blog at Composite Code.